Ottawa meet backs CSU against bosses, gov't, phonies

Unions won't allow ‘labor front’ in Canada

Seamen, miners, lumberworkers, auto work-
ers, electrical workers, office workers—five hun-
dred delegates from AFL and CCL unions in
every section of Canadian industry met in Ottawa
last week simultaneous with the Liberal conven-
tion to demand the government enforce its own
collective bargaining laws against the piratical
Great Lakes steamship companies. When the
delegates left for all parts of Canada to organize

e-{ even stronger movement in support of the
Camadian Seamen’s Union there was no doubt
that Canada’s million trade unionists stood solidly
behind the CSU.

“Such solidarity cannot be beaten... On behalf
of the striking seamen we pledge to carry on the
fight until victory is achieved,” Harry Davis, CSU
president, declared in closing the conference. 150

seamen and delegates picketed the Liberal con-

vention, whose resolutions committee refused a
hearing to the CSU and set, the convention on a
union-busting course.

“We are in this fight to a finish,” Trades
Congress President Percy Bengough said. “And

the phoney issue of Communism is not going to
prevent us from giving full support to the CSU,
nor will it prevent the seamen from winning
their fight.”

Tie up the far-flung developments, in the Great
Lakes strike situation and you get a package
of dynamite for the Canadian labor movement.

Police aid the lawless reign of terror on the
Lakes, by thugs and ships’ officers. Labor Minis-
ter Mitchell and Transport, Minister Chevrier
join the companies’ red smear against the Cana-
dian Seamen’s Union, incite the Shipping Federa-
tion of Canada to serve notice of termination of
deepsea contracts with the CSU. A. dis-
gusted Sullivan agent testifies to a company-
government move against Trades Congress Pres-
ident Percy Bengough. Sources close to Mitchell
reveal Frank Hall, president of the Brotherhood

CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION ASKS ACTION
Lake ship companies

Actions of Great Lakes steamship, actions in other parts of Canada.”

breach liberties

companies agdinst the Canadian
Seamen’s Union have been protest-

ed to Prime Minister King, Labor |

Minister Mitchell and Justice Min-
ister St. Laurent by the Vancouver)
branch of the Canadian Civil Lib-
erties Union.

A letter by Duncan D. MacNair,

secretary of the groupy protests
these actions as violations of civil

liberties.
“We fear that if these infringe-

ments are allowed to pass ,unchal-
lenged, 2 precedent will be set that

will encourage repetition of such.

The companies are charged with
violating the principles of collective
bargaining which are central to
Canadian labor laws and an accept-
ed part of democratic process, the
letter points out, and adds that the
CSU is the legal bargaining agent
of the employees of Canada Steam-
ship Lines and Sarnia-Colonial.

“In spite of these facts (the com-
panies) have not only refused to
make agreements, but have refused
to comply with their legal obliga-
tion to explore the possibility of

making agreements. They have
even precluded the possibility of

of Railway and Steamship Clerks, to be the
bosses’ “bet” to replace Bengough. Hall storms
out of the Ottawa “back the seamen” conference
with wild charges of Communist domination.

The plot reaches, beyond breaking individual
unions—it aims to capture a Congress. The issue
is whether labor’s enemies can convert the union
movement into a labor front or whether labor
will retain its right to choose its officers and
bargain freely.

Every union is threatened. Support for the
seamen must be intensified while standing by
for the next step. There is no going back. No
Canadian is safe till the seamen’s strike is won.

carrying out such negotiations by
having made an agreement with a
rival union.”

The statement confends that by
refusing to bargain with the CSU
on grounds it is politically domin-
ated; the companies have breached
the civil rights of the officers and
membership.

Mitchell is asked to “use every
moral and legal pressure to termin-
ate these violations of civil liberties
by securing a just and prompt set-
tlement between the legally consti-

tuted bargaining representative of
the employees and those intransi-
geant companies.”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 18, 1948—PAGE ¥

pee